Supporting detail:

Scientific evidence to help us understand climate change

The earth’s climate is changing. This change is being driven by human activity. Scientists overwhelmingly agree this is the case. Without action, the impacts of this change will be damaging and potentially catastrophic. Climate change poses a major risk to the UK’s citizens and economy, as well as the wider world. More information on the science of climate change can be found on the ‘climate change explained’ page.

A definition of climate change

A formal definition of climate change is:

“A change in the statistical characteristics of the atmosphere (such as temperature, rainfall, pressure, or winds), oceans (such as heat content or sea level rise), cryosphere (such as extent of sea ice or length of glaciers) or land surface (such as changes in vegetation type) typically sustained over several decades or longer. A change in climate may be due to natural or anthropogenic (i.e. due to human activity) factors, or a combination of both.”

Human-induced climate change is the current, past and future change in climate being driven by greenhouse gas emissions and other human activities, such as deforestation.

When Government talks about “climate change policy”, or action to “tackle climate change”, we are talking about climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Adaptation is taking steps to minimise exposure to damaging impacts of climate change, and to build resilience and reduce vulnerability to a changing climate.
Mitigation is taking steps to minimise the scale of global temperature rise by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and taking other steps, such as planting more forests.

Our work

Met Office Hadley Centre (MOHC)

The programme works with research councils, UK academic centres and collaborators worldwide, to build the scientific evidence that informs our policy and decision making. This includes analysis of earth observations, computer based models, climate change predictions, and assessments of the extent to which human activities have contributed to extreme weather and climate events.

DECC Earth Observations Strategy

Observing the real world is important for understanding how and why our climate is changing, and for developing better climate models. The DECC Earth Observations Strategy seeks to ensure cost-effective access to the data that is needed for climate modeling and to develop climate policy.
DECC co-funds some important earth observations including:

the international ‘Argo’ programme, which deploys more than 3000 submersible floats that measure salinity, current velocity and temperature in the global oceans;

four atmospheric greenhouse gas monitoring sites (three are in the UK and one in the Republic of Ireland), where the data are used to monitor trends, verify greenhouse gas inventories and contribute to scientific understanding of the build-up of concentrations in the atmosphere.

Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change Programme (AVOID)

DECC funds AVOID to provide evidence to inform mitigation and adaptation strategies for avoiding dangerous climate change. This evidence is delivered by a group of leading UK research institutes comprising:

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Our scientists support and co-ordinate UK input into the IPCC, a body set up to give governments the most up-to-date assessments of the scientific, technical and socio-economic aspects of climate change. These assessments inform domestic climate policy and the UK position in international climate negotiations.

Other work we’re supporting

We are:

supporting NERC in studying the crucial consequences of climate change, including those on ocean acidification and the Arctic environment, which are very likely to impact on the UK in coming decades.

commissioning work into the possible impacts of a changing climate on UK and European wind regimes, solar energy and other renewable energy sources

working with international partners on forestry projections and the monitoring, reporting and verification needed for climate negotiations

funding desk-based research into the environmental impacts of geo-engineering proposals to counter climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions

supporting global research on the governance of geo-engineering and working with NERC and MOHC to identify knowledge gaps in our understanding of the technology

Update on the Forests, Climate Change and Development Meeting held at the British Academy on Monday 26 January 2015.

3 December 2014 3:00pm

Updates to the page as the COP20 conference begins in Lima.

4 November 2014 9:14am

An update following the agreement by European Leaders in European Council of new climate and energy targets for 2030.

23 October 2014 3:39pm

The UK is calling for an ambitious climate and energy package for the period up to 2030.

8 November 2013 11:05am

Updated DFID support figure on ICF page from £2.13 billion to £2.4 billion

2 October 2013 4:18pm

Adding a link to the Q&A on the latest IPCC report on climate change.

1 October 2013 11:40am

Updated policy title to reflect the UK goverment's work on climate adaptation
Updated amount provided to ICF from £2.9 billion to £3.87 billion
Added new supporting page on adaptation and international climate change adaptation funds

20 May 2013 3:18pm

Case study on how the international climate fund (ICF) is supporting a low carbon transition in Chile, India, Nigeria and Turkey

15 May 2013 10:14am

A new version of the Fast Start brochure has been published today.

8 March 2013 12:18pm

A new International Climate Fund case study added on the Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMA) Facility.

6 March 2013 4:20pm

Case study added to the International Climate Fund section.

17 January 2013 10:34am

3 new case studies have been added to the International Climate Fund supporting page.

20 December 2012 2:36pm

Replaced background information with more detail relevant to all of government's actions for this policy. Also added detail page explaining how we're negotiating for an international treaty.